Sports: The Importance Of Concussions In Sports

The brain is a soft organ surrounded by spinal fluid to protect it from slamming into the skull. But if you are hit hard enough, the brain will hit the skull causing a concussion. A concussion is a type of traumatic brain injury that is caused by a blow to the head or body, fall, or another injury that jars or shakes the brain. Brains are like gelatin and the skull protects it from every day bumps and jolts; a violent blow could cause the brain to slide back and forth against the walls of the skull. In sports, concussions happen more often in contact sports such as football, but women get concussed more easily than men. Other common ways to get a concussion are fights, falls, playground injuries, car crashes, and bike accidents.
“High school football accounts for 47% of all reported sports related concussions with 33% happening in practice” (“Head Case - Complete Concussion Managements.”). Ice hockey and soccer are the other sports with the most reported concussions, and the amount of concussions has doubled in the last 10 years. For “people ages 15-24 years, sports are second only to car crashes as the

Following the season league officials and doctors got together to discuss the issue and they wondered if there was simply more concussions or if they just identified them better and more efficiently. “47% of all sports related concussions occur during high school football” (Head Case - Complete Concussion Managements). From 2012-2015 in the NFL there was no huge leap but still growing, in 2012 there were 261 concussions compared to 2015’s total of 271. 3,800,000 reported concussions in 2012, double that from 2002. Annually, 4-5 million concussions happen and the numbers are rising among middle schoolers. “In sports played by both sexes, girls sustained more concussions than boys in both high school and college”